Archive for November 18, 2019

MuleSoft Announces Low-code “Citizen” Integrator Tools

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 18, 2019 by itnerd

​MuleSoft today announced that ​HSBC​ is leveragingMuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform to build a ​digital banking platform​ to power the bank of the future.As one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, HSBC is taking advantage of open banking to drive new, connected experiences for its more than 38 million customers worldwide. With MuleSoft and its Anypoint API Community Manager, HSBC is building APIs that securely unlock access to core banking products to enable collaboration withpartners, accelerate innovation and open new revenue channels.

The rise of ​PSD2​ requirements and open banking are requiring financial institutions to share customer data with third party developers via APIs. Connected customer experiences havebecome the new battleground. Banks are going through a revolution where they must movefrom transactions to personalized interactions and digital services for customers. HSBC is leveraging an API strategy to develop a digital platform and co-create new experiences with a broader ecosystem of developers and partners.

Building a digital banking platform

HSBC realized that the bank of the future will be a digital platform, powered by a collection ofAPIs that enable truly connected, multi-channel experiences. The bank chose MuleSoft and itsAPI-led approach to connectivity to develop a shared services platform for secure asset reuse and business self-service. HSBC was able to turn its core banking products, including creditcards, mortgages, and payments, into APIs in an application network that can be easily andquickly assembled to create new experiences.

For example, HSBC can draw data from legacy systems using APIs to enable new features,such as showing customers an overview of their spending across all their bank accounts.Building APIs with MuleSoft, HSBC can unlock its backend systems and connect them withtrusted third-parties to develop a range of other new customer-facing services. By enabling anAPI ecosystem to innovate on top of its core bank platform, HSBC can drive speed, agility and innovation at scale to deliver more value for its customers.

Tapping into the API economy

In the same way that APIs have accelerated internal innovation, external APIs present the opportunity for HSBC to collaborate with partners and create new revenue channels. In this newAPI economy​, developers are HSBC’s new customers and developer portals are the newcustomer storefront. To engage and evangelize its APIs to developers, HSBC is leveraging APICommunity Manager built on Salesforce Community Cloud and Salesforce Service Cloud to deliver an internal and external developer portal that will span more than 30 markets and three global businesses.

API Community Manager uniquely combines a full-featured API portal and industry-leadingdigital experience capabilities, transforming how teams collaborate across the entire lifecycle ofan API program. With API Community Manager, HSBC can easily build and engage APIecosystems, so it can foster new partnerships to deliver joint business value and innovatefaster. For example, HSBC’s Mortgage API could be applied to home buying websites so that consumers can filter houses for which they are pre-approved.

HSBC at Dreamforce 2019

HSBC will be featured in the ​Integration Keynote​ on Wednesday, November 20 at 5 p.m. PT inMoscone North, Hall F. To tune into the keynote live stream, please visit: https://www.salesforce.com/video/7488080/​. In addition, HSBC will be leading a session withMuleSoft titled, “​Transform Customer Relationships with Open Banking and MuleSoft​,” onTuesday, November 19 at 12:30 p.m. PT on the Dreamforce campus.

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Apple and Salesforce Make A Joint Announcement At Dreamforce 2019

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 18, 2019 by itnerd

Apple and Salesforce today announced the launch of two flagship apps from the world’s #1 CRM: the redesigned Salesforce Mobile App and new Trailhead GO learning app, delivering rich customer experiences with features exclusive to iOS and iPadOS. The companies also announced the next-generation Salesforce Mobile SDK, empowering developers to easily build and deploy native apps for iPhone and iPad on the Salesforce Platform. Apple and Salesforce announced a strategic partnership at Dreamforce 2018.

At Dreamforce 2019, Apple and Salesforce are delivering:

  • The Salesforce Mobile App, powered by AI and reimagined on iOS. Salesforce completely redesigned its flagship mobile CRM app to deliver a powerful new user experience enabled by Einstein, with advanced analytics and features exclusive to iOS, including Siri shortcuts and Face ID. Now anyone can run their business on mobile in a way that’s conversational and smart — leveraging the power of Siri and Einstein Voice Assistant to quickly add tasks, take notes and update their CRM.
  • Trailhead GO, the first-ever mobile app for Trailhead, exclusive to iOS and iPadOS. Trailhead is Salesforce’s free online learning platform used by millions of Trailblazers to skill up for the jobs of today and tomorrow. With Trailhead GO, learners now have access anywhere and at anytime to more than 700 modules covering in-demand business and tech skills — including trails like Get Started with iOS App Development, which teaches developers at any level how to build native apps. Built on Swift using Salesforce’s Mobile SDK, Trailhead GO supports Handoff in addition to Accessibility features like VoiceOver and Magnifier; iPadOS features include Split View for multi-tasking and Picture-in-Picture for video courses.
  • The new Salesforce Mobile SDK, optimized for Swift and iOS 13. The next generation of Salesforce’s Mobile SDK adds support for the latest advancements in iOS 13, iPadOS and Swift, including Swift UI and Package Manager, for easier compiling and distribution of code. The new SDK will empower more than six million Salesforce developers to quickly build and deploy native Salesforce apps for iPhone and iPad. The SDK has already been used by hundreds of businesses to focus on what they do best: provide a superior customer experience.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will join Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff for a fireside chat at Dreamforce 2019 on Tuesday, November 19, 1:30 p.m. PT at Yerba Buena Theater. The talk is open to all conference attendees and a livestream will be available at https://www.salesforce.com/video/.

Attendees of Dreamforce 2019 can get a hands-on look at the new Salesforce products in the Moscone South Campground. Learn more about the Apple and Salesforce partnership: www.salesforce.com/apple.

Pricing & Availability 

  • The Salesforce Mobile App is now generally available for free on the App Store. The new user experience and features require Salesforce admin opt-in.
  • Trailhead GO is now generally available for free on the App Store. Additional features including support for iOS Dark Mode and Sign in with Apple across Trailhead are expected to be available later this year.
  • The new Salesforce Mobile SDK 8.0 with support for Dark Mode and Swift UI is expected to be available later this year, with additional features optimized for iPadOS expected to arrive in a 2020 release.

 

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F12.net Announces First Chief Technology Officer

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 18, 2019 by itnerd

F12.net Inc. (“F12”) is delighted to announce the appointment of Calvin Engen as CTO.

After an introduction to F12 during a student placement, Calvin Engen made it his mission to join the F12 technical services team. In 2006 that day came. He quickly distinguished himself through his impeccable work ethic, relentless drive, and passion for technology. In short order, Calvin earned the confidence of F12’s clients and F12’s leaders.

Calvin demanded evidence-based decisions, calmly challenging his peers, suppliers, and F12 itself with his meticulously researched positions. He was a prescient force behind the launch of F12’s Cloud services.  Consequently, few were surprised when he was promoted to Director of IT in 2012. In that role, Calvin matured F12’s security posture, technology offerings, service delivery, and the F12 Connect platform.

A regular speaker at business leadership forums about data privacy, cybersecurity, and cloud services, Calvin is the only Canadian member of the WatchGuard Advisory Council.

As F12’s CTO, Calvin will ensure F12 continues to reduce risk and complexity for Canadian businesses by crafting technology services that free leaders to focus on what they do best. His responsibilities include platform innovation, solution engineering, and the information security of every employee and client of F12.

About F12.net

F12.net is an award-winning provider of comprehensive IT programs designed to reduce risk and complexity, freeing business leaders to focus and thrive. F12’s suite of IT solutions improves productivity, reduces risk, and rationalizes IT investments.

More information about F12’s solutions can be found on the company website: https://f12.net

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Trend Micro Debuts Security Services Platform For Organizations Building Applications In The Cloud

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 18, 2019 by itnerd

Trend Micro Incorporated today announced the launch of Trend Micro Cloud One™, a security services platform for organizations building applications in the cloud. Cloud One allows developers torapidly build applications using the cloud services they want, while managing their organization’s risk.

Cloud One delivers the industry’s broadest range of security capabilities in a single platform. Designed to help organizations meet their most strategic cloud priorities, it allows customers to migrate existing applications to the cloud, deliver new cloud-native applications and achieve cloud operational excellence. The first-of-its-kind platform has the flexibility to solve immediate customer challenges and the innovation to rapidly evolve with cloud services. At its heart, Cloud One includes the world’s leading workload security service that is already in use by thousands of organizations. It is complemented by enhanced container security and brand-new offerings for application security, network security, file storage security and cloud security posture management to ensure cloud infrastructure is optimally configured.

Many cloud security solutions are often hard to manage and deploy, inflexible and fail to provide the level of visibility IT teams need to manage fast-emerging risks.

Trend Micro’s all-in-one platform approach is designed to deliver simplified, automated and flexible protection, regardless of where an organization is on the journey to the cloud. Customers using the platform will benefit from a single-sign-on to all services, common user and cloud-service enrolment, visibility from a single console and a common pricing and billing model.

Trend Micro’s new cloud security platform supports the leading cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

By considering cloud projects and objectives holistically, Trend Micro Cloud One is able to provide enterprise grade security, while leveraging the benefits and efficiencies of the cloud.

The Cloud One platform will be available in Q1 2020 with three services fully integrated: workload security, network security and application security. The other components will be available as stand-alone solutions in Q1 2020 and integrated into Cloud One by the end of 2020.

  • Trend Micro Cloud One – Workload Security
  • Trend Micro Cloud One – Container Image Security
  • Trend Micro Cloud One – File Storage Security
  • Trend Micro Cloud One  – Network Security
  • Trend Micro Cloud One – Cloud Posture Management
  • Trend Micro Cloud One – Application Security

To find out more about Cloud One, please visit https://www.trendmicro.com/cloudone.

 

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New Voice For Turn-By-Turn Navigation Via Waze Aims To Calm Drivers This Season

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 18, 2019 by itnerd

Whether stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic or trying to avoid a roadside accident, some of the most stressful moments while driving can come from drivers’ daily commutes. Add in the hectic holiday season, that stress can multiply! However, with the help of a recently-launched feature in Waze, Canadian drivers can find some zen and a sense of revitalization when navigating to the mall for some holiday shopping, dashing through the snow to a festive party or traveling to visit family or friends this season.

In partnership with Lincoln, Waze has launched a new voice for turn-by-turn navigation, providing the first-ever navigation system that doubles as a calm and mindfulness guide. The new voice is warm, smooth and easy-going, and refreshed prompts include reminders to relax. Sample prompts include: “Ready, set, relax! And start driving,” and “Heavy traffic reported ahead. Deep breaths!”

Waze x Lincoln.jpg

Available now until December 29, Waze users can activate the new voice by going to Settings, then Voice Directions, and selecting “Lincoln Canada.”

 

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Pulse Secure Recognized as Great Place to Work Certified Company

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 18, 2019 by itnerd

Pulse Secure, the leading provider of software-defined Secure Access solutions, has been recognized as a Great Place to Work Certified Company.

The company’s employees themselves helped earn the distinction, which is based on an independent survey of the employee experience and an analysis of the culture measured against Great Place to Work’s global benchmark data. Key findings included:

  • 92% said Pulse Secure is a great place to work
  • 97% say people care about each other
  • 98% celebrate special events at the company
  • 95% feel they can “be me”

Other notable findings of the analysis were a successful internship program with a track record of 20% converting to full-time hires.

Great Place to Work conducted an extensive Pulse Secure employee survey and assessed the results against an industry comparative benchmark to achieve “Certified” rated. The Great Place to Work Certification process is based on rigorous benchmarks established by surveys of more than 100 million employees over 30 years. The resulting analytical model is used to evaluate company cultures against the best in the world. Known as the Great Place to Work Trust ModelTM, because trust is the essential element of a great workplace, the same standard process is used to create theFortune 100 “Best Companies to Work For” and other notable lists.

Earlier this year, Pulse Secure was ranked 26th among 2019 Top Workplaces by the Bay Area News Group. That recognition, the second year in a row, was also based on an employee survey conducted externally.

 

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Review: Hiplok Z Lok Combo

Posted in Products with tags on November 18, 2019 by itnerd

Something that I regularly do with my cycling club is to go on what is known in cycling circles as “the coffee ride”. That’s a ride where you ride to a coffee shop, have a coffee and come back. In our case, we ride from the west end of Toronto Ontario to Oakville Ontario to a small coffee shop that’s in the town. It’s about an 80KM/50 mile round trip ride. The only problem is where to park your bike so that it won’t get stolen while we enjoy our coffee. After all my bike isn’t exactly cheap and many members of the club ride bikes that are worth well north of $10,000 CDN. To mitigate the risk of having my bike stolen, I carry the Hiplok Z Lok Combo with me:

IMG_1396

This looks like a zip tie, but it isn’t. It’s a super tough combination lock (which you can set your own combination at will) that’s designed to go through your wheel and a section of the frame to make it less attractive for thieves to steal your bike. If you could wrap it around a solid object as well, that would further deter thieves. But that object would have to be thin to make that use case work. It fits easily into a cycling jersey pocket and weighs next to nothing.

To be clear, this isn’t a high security lock. If you leave your bike in downtown Toronto with this lock, it may not be there when you get back. However, in the use case that I described earlier, which is that you use this lock in a small town to stop the “snatch and run” type of bike theft, It’s definitely a good enough deterrent. I also used a pair of these to secure our bikes on our roof rack during our trip to Prince Edward Island this past summer as the roof rack on the car has locks for the bike forks, but not for the rear wheel.

Gripes? It could be just a touch longer to make it a bit more versatile. But the flip side of that is that if it were longer, it might not fit in a jersey pocket which makes it less likely to be taken on a ride. So that’s a trade off that I suppose is fair. One suggestion I have is to take two as they are easy to carry as mentioned previously.

The Hiplok Z Lok Combo goes for about $35 CDN at your local bike shop. If you partake in coffee rides, or just want some security for your bike if you have to park it for a few minutes, this is absolutely worth a look.

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